The motorcyclist was riding between two of the buses, the NYPD source said. (Franklin II/AP)

A chain-reaction wreck involving a motorcycle and three buses in the Lincoln Tunnel injured 53 people and snarled the Thursday morning commute.

The motorcyclist was critically injured when he was sandwiched between two of the buses, an NYPD source said.

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The wreck happened in the Manhattan-bound lanes of the tunnel's center tube shortly before 7:30 a.m., a Port Authority spokeswoman said.

The motorcyclist was riding between two of the buses, the NYPD source said. When the first bus stopped for traffic, the second bus slammed the motorcyclist from behind, pinning him against the first bus, the source said.

The motorcyclist wound up underneath the second bus.

A passenger on that bus, Janet Rivera, 44, of Carteret, N.J., made a frantic call to her husband after the smashup.

"She was hysterical. She said: 'There's someone under the bus. ... We can hear him screaming under the bus,'" her husband, Luis Rivera, told the Daily News.

He said his wife, a Legal Aid Society worker, told him emergency reponders had to lift the bus up to free the trapped motorcyclist.

The crash happened just before 7:30 a.m. in the Manhattan-bound lanes. (Alyna Silva viaTwitter@ALYNASILVA)

The motorcyclist was rushed by ambulance to Bellevue Hospital, an FDNY official said. He suffered a broken leg and a broken shoulder and had to be intubated at the hospital, another FDNY source said. He was not immediately identified.

A total of 52 passengers on the buses were injured, FDNY officials said. Most of the injuries were minor, but 13 of the passengers suffered more serious injuries and were taken to Roosevelt Hospital, the FDNY officials said.

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Two of the buses involved in the wreck were operated by New Jersey Transit, according to the Port Authority.

"I hit my head on the window and it shattered," she said as she was released from Bellevue Hospital Thursday afternoon.

"There were just a lot of people shaken up," she added. "There were a lot of head injuries. I feel like I'm one of the lucky ones."

Alyna Silva, 20, of New Jersey, was riding on a bus that was not involved in the crash. Silva said some of the injured passengers had to be carried off the bus; some had blood dripping from their faces. One woman couldn't talk because her jaw was injured. A man was choking on blood that gushed from his nose.

The Lincoln Tunnel normally operates with four Manhattan-bound lanes during the morning rush hour. The crash led to the closure of two of those lanes. Normal service did not resume until almost 1:30 p.m.

The accident happened near the Manhattan side of the tunnel. Many of the vehicles that were stranded in the tunnel closer to the New Jersey side were backed out of the tube with the help of police, the Port Authority spokeswoman said.

But unlucky motorists who were just behind the wreck were stranded for more than three hours as authorities investigated the crash.

Some of those vehicles did not exit the tunnel until after 11 a.m. Silva said it was 11:45 a.m. by the time she finally got out of the tunnel on the New Jersey side.

"I didn't care if I was going to be stuck there for the rest of the day; I was just praying that the man on the motorcycle was going to be okay," she said.